Introduction
The arts play an important role in treatment and recovery of our patients and the wellbeing of our staff, visitors and carers. Engaging with the arts offers numerous benefits for anyone who uses our facilities.
CREATIVE CARE: Arts in Health Strategy 2026 – 2030
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust have launched CREATIVE CARE: Arts in Health Strategy 2026–2030, the organisation’s third Arts in Health Strategy and a renewed commitment to the role of creativity in supporting health and wellbeing. Building on the foundations laid by the Trust’s first Arts in Health Strategy in 2013, the programme has grown into a vibrant initiative influencing practice across Northern Ireland.
Engagement in creative activities has flourished, with patients, service users, staff, and volunteers regularly participating in visual arts, music, dance, movement, and photography.
The new strategy, shaped through extensive consultation with staff, service users, and arts partners, sets the direction for the next five years. It maintains a strong focus on participatory creative activity while expanding ambitions for managing the Trust’s art and heritage assets. The Arts Steering Group will lead delivery and measure meaningful outcomes.
You can read the Strategy here or by clicking the link below.
Artists-in-residence
Working in partnership with ArtsCare, the leading arts in health charity, our artists-in-residence visit wards and inpatient services throughout the week, all year round. They lead workshops and co-create artworks with patients and service users. Visual arts workshops, from watercolours to drawing to mosaics, offer enjoyment, escape and connection to patients during what can be stressful moments in their lives. Musicians play uplifting and enriching music in waiting areas and perform alongside patients on the wards, while our dancers encourage movement in new ways, often supporting recovery for those with limited mobility.
A musician from Live Music Now performs at Glencairn Day Centre |
A budding artist enjoys an Arts Care children’s workshop at the Arches Wellbeing and Treatment Centre |
Arts and Heritage Collections
Walking through any of our hospitals or community facilities, you might notice items from the Trust’s extensive collections. Works by celebrated contemporary artists including Rita Duffy and John Kindness are on display alongside older portraits and statues that relate to the history of Belfast’s hospitals. There are numerous plaques, photographs and other heritage items collected over 200 years of our shared history. We are committed to enhancing our hospital environments and offering an enjoyable experience on site with integrated artworks, opportunities for space and reflection and wayfinding through the large hospital sites.
Painting titled ‘At Work – Theatres’ (2011) by Hilary Cromie, an artist-in-residence who produced several artworks based on her surroundings at the Royal |
Sculpture located in the old entrance lobby of the Royal Maternity Hospital – ‘Mother and Child’ (1932) by the renowned sculptor Sophia Rosamond Praeger |
Artwork Donations
At Belfast Trust, we are frequently offered donations of artworks from patients, their family members and staff. Many of the artworks on display across our hospital sites and specialist care centres have come through kind donations from the public. To find out more about artwork donations, get in touch with us to discuss further.
Contact Us
Paula McHugh, Arts in Health Manager: Paula.McHugh@belfasttrust.hscni.net